“Facebook will boost your brand”

“People are making fortunes from Facebook”

“A Facebook fan-page brings massive return on investment”

These are just some of the absolute cock-and-bull statements that fall from the turgid mouths of people who promote themselves as “Social Media Consultants”. Yes, they do exist, you’ve seen them and I’ve seen them. Heck, I’ve even met a couple in the flesh which is why I keep a bottle of that steriliser spray in my top pocket just in case I have to shake their hands and pretend to tolerate their sweaty pale skin. Read the rest of this entry »

Remember Google Buzz? Eh? Remember it? The social network style chatty-thing that was going to be a Twitter-like tool to allow us all to communicate etc.? Use it? Nahh, nor me. Well, you can scratch it off the ‘To-do’ list because it’s gone away, gone the way of the Dodo. As a method of social networking (or whatever it was) it is no more.

Tossed into the rubbish bin like so many other failed attempts to get the masses to interact using a new, more streamlined and efficient platform. Problem was, though, nobody really used it. Read the rest of this entry »

OK, it’s an old subject but one which up until this week has been a pain in the backside for many people. You want to transfer files from one PC to another, sometimes in the same room, sometimes across the world but either way, it’s never been point-and-click easy. You fumble about for memory sticks, CDs, you try emailing them (but they’re too big) and then you attempt to use Microsoft’s networking and sharing effort in Windows.

After the screams you vow to find another way – and now there is!

Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago I discussed how the rise in tablet PCs and the ongoing battle between Apple and Adobe on the use of Flash meant that if we didn’t make sure our website worked for non-Flash browsers we could be potentially losing customers (here).

Customer experience is everything and if we want to make sure we squeeze every single drop of potential out of a customer visit, we need to make our sites as user-friendly as possible. Of course, there was a bit of a backlash because, regardless of how many people are now using iPads to browse, the vast majority of PC users are still viewing the web with Internet Explorer of which 95% apparently have Flash installed.

But that’s all about to change… Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a sobering thought. You know that lovely bit of Flash animation you’ve got on your website, you know, the one that shows all the lovely images and things you sell in a neat slide-show with transitions etc, the one you paid a lot for? What if I told you it was actually losing you revenue?

Yep – losing you revenue. Not just ‘not helping’ but ‘losing’.

Read the rest of this entry »

The SEO newswires have been abuzz lately with the news that JC Penny, a huge department store in the US has been penalised by Google for cheating and using “black hat” SEO techniques to boost rankings for many keywords.  But what did they do and how did they do it? More importantly, how can you ensure you don’t fall into the trap and get penalised yourself?

Read the rest of this entry »

So many people use Google search these days (it’s the most popular search engine by a long chalk) that we seem to forget that it’s got a lot more under the hood than simply a method by which you can type in a couple of words and get a list of websites.

In fact, some of the frustrations people have when searching could dissapear if they used a couple of neat tricks to get the best results possible. They’d save an awful lot of time too, so here are just a couple that will make your searches a lot more bearable.

Read the rest of this entry »

If there’s one thing that the recent break has helped me realise, it’s just how much junk email I receive every single day that does nothing but interrupt my work. As there was nobody sending me real emails for a good few days, all I had were all the crappy ones from mailing lists I subscribed to during the year and websites with forums telling me that absolutely nothing had happened, but that they thought they ought to tell me anyway.

Thanks.Normally I don’t notice them because when my phone beeps to tell me I’ve got something new to read, interspersed between the junk will be a real email that I can look at and respond to. I simply filter out the rubbish and carry on, but when there’s going to be nobody emailing because their website had gone blue or their emails aren’t coming through, then you suddenly realise something ‘aint right.

Last Monday whilst enjoying a few drinks with friends, my phone beeped about ten times during the evening and each time it was because some website wanted to tell me that Dave had posted a reply to something I’d said just before Christmas. Well done Dave, your post has just interrupted my beer. Obviously it’s not Dave’s fault, he didn’t know, he’s not even in the UK so it’s probably breakfast where he is.

No, it’s technology’s fault, and it’s our fault for not taking a hammer to the damn things when they begin to encroach on our life in ways that are simply not healthy. We need to rise up against the machine Luddite style and take back our calendars, reclaim our spare time and remember that life is made for living and not responding to beeps and whistles from the technology that follows us everywhere.

Just in case you’re wondering where I’m going with this, don’t panic, I’m not going suggest you throw your laptop out the window or burn your hard disks, no, there is an easier way that won’t mean you’re destroying equipment and bringing on the wrath of your insurance company.

Here are a few non-violent tips to help you on your way:

1. Unsubscribe from all those mailing listsGo through all your emails right now. This minute. Now. And where you see an unsubscribe at the bottom of the email, consider whether that would be a good button to push. Do most of your mails stay bold and unread? Do you actually read and get any benefit from any of them? If you don’t, click unsubscribe.
2. Hit the ‘SPAM’ buttonUnsubscribe not working? People ignoring your requests? Many email systems have a button that will alert your host or at least update your software so that any senders who repeatedly send you stuff that you didn’t ask for will be marked as spam and you won’t see their emails again. Be brutal, get rid of them.
3. Stop signing up for stuff
   This is my biggest problem. I keep signing up for crappy websites that promise to send me lots of useful information when really they’re just piling more rubbish into my inbox. DON’T SUCCUMB!!! JUST SAY NO!!! If you don’t sign up for them, they can’t keep hassling you. End of. Obviously if it’s useful, keep them, but keep it to a minimum. I’ve just unsubscribed from a mailing list telling me about all the latest deals on lease cars – like I care!

Keeping your inbox clear of these things will do wonders for your sanity. Don’t be a slave to the beep and don’t turn away from a conversation with someone who is actually buying you a beer to find out what some other persion, that you’ve never met is trying to tell you.

2011 is the year of getting personal.

Join me!

If you have a website, chances are that you didn’t create it to sit there and look pretty. We have pets for that.

Your website should have been created to attract more sales, leads or business enquiries.

The problem is that most people I speak to aren’t getting any real results from their website.

Here’s why your site (probably) fails

• Your site doesn’t allow people to connect with you.
• Your site doesn’t provide information and ideas.
• Your site doesn’t help people find answers to the problems they are having.
• Your site doesn’t showcase your skills and how effective you are.
• Your site doesn’t show what your clients think of your services.
• Your site doesn’t have any reasons why people should call you.
• Your site looks a mess.
• Your site is too salesy and puts people off.

Here’s how you fix it

• Allow people to connect with you.If people like what they see, make sure they can subscribe to your site. Maybe you could also link to your twitter and facebook pages too.
• Your site doesn’t provide information and ideas.
  Most companies have a blog and it really isn’t that hard to set up. Some people tell us they can’t find any interesting information about their industry. The answer to that is, they just haven’t looked hard enough. Check out what others in your industry are blogging about.
• Your site doesn’t help people find answers to the problems they are having.What do you help fix? Make sure you tell your readers about the problems and how you go about fixing them.
• Your site doesn’t showcase your skills and how effective you are. Your site doesn’t show what your clients think of your services.
  To cover both of these, you could utilise a portfolio on your site or some really effective testimonials from clients. If you can get them on video, even better.
• Your site doesn’t have any reasons why people should call you.Why should people call you? Spend some time thinking that through.
• Your site looks a mess.
  If you are a design agency, then you should be ashamed. If you do not have the skills to design and construct your site in a way that is very easy to
• Your site is too salesy and puts people off.Just remember, people don’t like being sold to, but they do like to buy from people they like. Take off the obvious over the top salesy bits of your site and create a more useful authority site that people will want to keep coming back to. When the time is right, they will become customers.

Hope those tactics are useful. Try tackling one at a time and tell us how you get on.

I’m sure you’ve now heard through your favourite news outlet about ACP Law, the fact they left a bunch of emails on their server and all about the content of those emails. It appears ACP was acting on behalf of Digiprotect who owned the copyright on various games and porn films and these emails contained details of the people they were about to or were taking to court, as well as many personal emails from the head of the company.

But surely this is hard to get? Surely it takes super-hard hackers to get hold of this information?

Want to see it?Now before I give you the information, I’m going to pop in a disclaimer. If you do get hold of the data, you’re probably handling stolen goods in some aspects of the law. It’s probably even not that grey an area, so just bear in mind, you’re handling stolen goods.

If you use certain bits of software to download it, you’ll then be making it available to others so you’ll be ‘distributing’ stolen goods. You may also be downloading viruses and all other sorts of bad stuff – so even though I’m going to show you how, my advice is DON’T DO IT!

Crikey!

So why tell you at all? Well, in the pub last night when this issue came up, I was surrounded by people, people with kids, who said “yeah, but it’s dead hard to get hold of it” and when I informed them how easy it actually was and that their kids were probably already on to it, they were a bit shocked. Not only that, with my wi-fi enabled phone I already know that there are dozens of un-encrypted networks within a few miles of my house. Someone could simply drive up with their laptop, connect, download the file and then you are the one with the conviction.

Theft no longer requires conscious thought. Even the most inexperienced computer owner can simply turn up and nick off with yours or someone else’s data and leave you with the fallout.

Also, you may well have stopped your kids visiting certain websites using some software or other, but I bet they can still get hold of data like this because, as you’re about to find out, it’s easy. Dead easy. It’s a two-step process.

Watch this.

First, head over to Google and type in ‘Micro torrent’. You’ll then be able to download a very widely used bit of software. It’s perfectly legal and is used legitimately by many people to share images, files etc. It’s fine.

Then search for “ACP Law Torrent”.

There you go. You’re on your own now, I leave you here, I go no further. At this point I turned away I suggest you do too. Do you think your kids will? Is that car outside just checking his sat-nav or is he downloading it off your wi-fi?

Paranoid yet?